From: Leslie Viljoen Date: 2008-06-11T05:02:11+09:00 Subject: Re: webby, ubuntu and gems On Tue, Jun 10, 2008 at 9:49 PM, Eric Hodel wrote: > On Jun 10, 2008, at 12:01 PM, Leslie Viljoen wrote: >> >> On Tue, Jun 10, 2008 at 8:10 PM, Eric Hodel wrote: >>> >>> On Jun 10, 2008, at 07:49 AM, miles.sterrett@gmail.com wrote: >>>> >>>> Incidentally, it is acceptable, if not recommended, to install >>>> RubyGems from source. Because RubyGems can update itself, you can run >>>> into issues with both apt/aptitude/Synaptic and RubyGems trying to >>>> update RubyGems. >>> >>> I don't recommend installing RubyGems from source over a package. Choose >>> whichever makes you most comfortable. >>> >>> I do recommend only continuing to upgrade RubyGems however you initially >>> installed it. Upgrading RubyGems via `gem update --system` instead of >>> through the packager you installed it with may lead to undesired >>> behavior. >> >> Oh? Perhaps 'gem update --system' should check if it was installed via Apt >> and refuse to update then. Not realising the danger here, I have updated >> gem >> in exactly this way quite a few times. > > This would have to work for every packaged RubyGems. I don't know of a way > to do that so it wouldn't break somewhere. > >> I haven't noticed any problems but I suppose if I tried to cleanly remove >> gem >> with apt things would break? Actually I have been running and updating apt >> in >> this way since two Ubuntu releases ago, and have done two Ubuntu upgrades >> in between without noticing any problems! > > > Last I looked, apt RubyGems changes the default gem repository by > hard-coding a path. Updating would cause gems to "disappear" because > RubyGems would switch back to the default path. Ah, now that I think about it I have noticed that sort of thing happening! This explains so much! Surely update --system could at least say "warning, if you did not install Rubygems from source, this is not a safe operation. Continue?" Les